Announcement: Call for Papers, 8th European Conference on Digital Archiving

A few days ago, I received the following email. It is an announcement and a call for papers for the 8th European Conference on Digtial Archiving that will be held in Geneva, Switzerland from April 28 - 30, 2010.

Dear Sir,

The Swiss Federal Archives organise together with the International Council on Archives' (ICA) European Regional Branch (EURBICA) and the Section on Professional Associations (SPA) the 8th European Conference on Digital Archiving that takes place in Geneva, 28 - 30 April 2010.

As of now it is possible to submit abstracts online at Abstract Submission. I am writing to ask if you can publish this short announcement in your blog. You find more information on the conference and details on the Call for Papers on our website www.bar.admin.ch/eca2010

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thank you very much for your help to promote the ECA 2010!

Best regards,

Mercedes Matas

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin

My pleasure, Ms. Matas. I wish I could attend. The conference sounds interesting. (Wink wink Mercedes!)

Constant--and, I might add, very patient--readers, by all means, please feel free to spread the word about this announcement and call for papers to your colleagues.

EDUCAUSE Street Cred

I was ego-surfing the other day--you know, ego-surfing, typing your name into Google and finding out who's talking about you, who's linking back to your site, that sort of vain late night activity--and so, like, I googled my name, right, and guess where I appeared? On a link pointing to the EDUCAUSE website!  Yep, you guessed it, yours truly, on EDUCAUSE.

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology, so says its website.  Now, I was located--or, rather, my profile was located--on a page listing current McGill staff members.  Now that's odd, considering I am no longer a McGill employee (though I have absolutely no opposition to be one again, but I digress).  But nevermind that slight mistake, what really is cool--and I mean real cool--is that the website recognized me as an Archivist-Electronic Records AND Blogger!

It's enough to make me forget my miserable cold!

Annoyed vs. the Webtamer and other tales from the Archives

The mysterious but always outspoken (and often controversial) Annoyed Librarian strikes again, this time dishing out her annoyance at video games as becoming part of the library school curriculum and their usage in libraries. She quotes The Shifted Librarian describing a gaming course offered by Dr. Michael Stephens. Both Stephens and Shifted are proponents of gaming in library school and libraries. The latter, Stephens, whom the Annoyed Librarian affectionately calls the Webtamer (or Dr. Webtamer, since earning his Ph.D), is the prolific blogger/librarian behind the Tame the Web blog, which regularly promotes the use of gaming and social networking technologies in libraries to encourage community involvement.

Taken with a grain of satirical salt, the Annoyed Librarian argues that library school, already in many respects an “intellectual joke,” as she call it, will become more so if it embraces video gaming as the new education model. And the people promoting these activities, those “twopointopians,” should continue doing so on their blogs, even though they are probably too busy playing video games or social networking.

For the record, I like Michael Stephens, aka Dr. Webtamer, at least the parts of his professional life that he blogs and photographs. And in some ways, I envy his stature in the library field. He travels extensively and gives presentations across the United States, talking about stuff he loves. His excitement is tangible; he truly loves his profession. He’s excited about his work and how all those little gadgets and social networking technologies impact his work and life – and how they can do the same for library schools and libraries.

There are other bloggers/librarians whose day jobs, it seems, are filled with nothing but Second Life, iPods, and Guitar Hero. Although their jobs do not reflect reality, my reality at least, I nonetheless cannot fault them for being so joyful.

I hope they realize how very fortunate they are—how very fortunate--for many us in this field toil in obscurity.

Also for the record, I like the Annoyed Librarian as well. I believe she is a collective of annoyed librarians, and someone in the group is the editor. How can one person be so prolific and still have time to do their day job? In any case, the Annoyed Librarian remains one of the few blogs in the blogosphere that, with wit and satire, nails the foibles of library school so succinctly. It has acted as a personal balm on many occasions.

In regards to video games and gaming, I blogged about video games in the corporate world a few blog posts ago. Citing a BBC news article--and with tongue firmly pressed in check--I figured, what the heck: If video games are the collaboration model for many young adults entering the workforce, then the workforce should adopt video games as the means to get its young employees to collaborate and get the work done. I even figured I best dust off my old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to prepare myself. Remember that one, folks, the NES?

Then I read a blog post from our Chief Information Officer, which stunned me, quite frankly. (Sorry, folks, his blog is behind a firewall.) Essentially, he argues that we, our institution, should have a presence in the virtual world Second Life. I had to re-read his post twice just in case I misread his comments. But it’s true: He firmly believes in virtual spaces such as Second Life as a viable and business valuable strategy. Cool, but...

On the one hand, I can appreciate the case Stephens, Shifted and our CIO present. The collaborative space, influenced by videogames, is an emerging platform where people come together and, bound by common goals, work together in the virtual space to achieve said common goals. But on the other hand, I wonder if all this virtual/collaborative space is nothing but another layer of unnecessary work and extra steps to attain information, knowledge, or getting the job done. It’s fun, sure, but is it necessary?

Don't get me wrong: I love a good game of Half-Life 2 as much as the next guy. But what does a first-person shooter--or twanging a guitar controller--have in common with information delivery?

The Web and History

Last week, I attended a meeting hosted by a local young adult / young professionals organization. The organization discusses news and events of concern to the neighborhood and often schedules movie nights that focus on a particular theme. It's great for socializing and learning a new thing or two about our world.

On this evening the movie scheduled was called "Beyond the Gates," a film about a teacher and a Catholic priest caught in the middle of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where Hutu killers massacred Tutsis by the hundreds of thousands. Based on a true story, the movie was rough and gut-wrenching.

The movie--and the entire Rwandan genocide--reminded me of one courageous Canadian solider, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, a commander on a United Nations mission in the troubled African country.

The tragedy remains raw for anyone taking a casual glance at the story: Lt. Gen. Dallaire's losing battle with U.N. bureaucracy and subsequent inability to act against the chaos unfolding around him and his eventual struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are well chronicled in a book he penned.

Dallaire warns that if we fail to learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

History.

I believe Web technology offers a chance to keep history alive to everyone from a university professor to a student to everyone else in between.

National Public Radio (NPR), the U.S. equivalent of the CBC in Canada, had an interview with Dallaire when his book was published. NPR recorded the interview with Dallaire and now offers it over the Web. Streaming audio technology has been around for several years now, but this is still a remarkable use of the technology. It's live and alive.

Meanwhile, the United States Marine Corps University Archives is actively recording the stories of veteran marines. I recently contacted Dr. Jim Ginther, Archives Team Leader in the Library of the Marine Corps, and asked if he planned on making these recordings available over the Web.

"The long range plan is to make these available on-line," Dr. Ginther explained, adding that "no firm timeline has been set for specific interviews or groups of interviews." The real issue at the moment revolves less around content, but more around hardware and software. "We are in the process of upgrading our systems to allow us to do just what you suggest," he said.

With that, I wished him and his project the best of luck.

The Web remains undoubtedly an exciting place, and an excellent place to share with others stories from the past.

Saturday in the Park

Weekend Update

It's Saturday, a much cooler and much more Fall-like day than any other day this past week. Much of the humidity that had heated the city is gone, perhaps vacationing some place much more south than here, like the Caribbean.

This past week at work was very busy and I anticipate an even busier one next week. It seems like I am juggling more and more work as the weeks--and as the projects--move forward. On the one hand, I am pleased that the projects are indeed moving forward; but, on the other hand, I am certainly not welcoming the increased work piling up on my desk or the levels of stress.

As usual, I would love to share with my readers more details. But of course that is not possible due to the sensitive nature of the work. Nevertheless, I really miss sharing this kind of information, for it makes blogging--and connecting with other bloggers--all the more interesting. Being an international civil servant may not be my cup of tea.

Blog Notes

One of the reasons I like reading blogs is because every so often a blogger or two out there writes something that really resonates with me...and in a odd way comforts me when the going gets tough over here in hectic Washington, DC.

There's the blogger who, like myself, misses the academic environment; there's the blogger who, like myself, reflects upon his life and career and realizes that to live authentically is to live without fear of taking risks; and there's the blogger who, like myself, is excited about the web and emerging web technologies and their impact on information services and communication and connecting people, that he writes about these things on an almost daily basis, evangelizing people of the power of the Web.

This is me - I work on the Web

I came across this meme (or web movement) on Michael Stephen's Tame the Web blog and, following a link within said blog post, discovered another blogger espousing the same affirmation: "This is me - I work on the Web."

According to Kathryn Greenhill, the meme started on Flickr and has spawned a Flickr Group called iworkontheweb. Cool.

Although both Michael and Kathryn are librarians, the web affirmation transcends the library and information field (and archives field, of course).

I like this affirmation because it reflects the changing nature and perception of the Web. The Web is no longer on the periphery, on the fringes of regular work and social activity. It is an extension, a natural integral component of work and life now. I am part of it--you are part of it as well--even though I currently find myself in a work environment that is less Web-centric that I had hoped.

To Do Lists

The to-do list is not very long today, but still it sits in front of me, grinning. Okay, it's time to get things done.

Interesting People, Interesting Blogs (Part 7)

Another installment to what has become a personal favorite of mine.

I came across Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog while examining one of his books, Digital history: a guide to gathering, preserving, presenting the past on the web (which seems like an equally good read as well, but that's another topic).

I like this blog because it focuses on how research in the humanities can benefit from current and emerging technologies such as digitization and Web 2., including a cool Firefox add-on called Zotero, a social bookmarking and citation organizer tool that harnesses the community of researchers in the humanities field. Very cool.